A Week In Sheffield

APOLOGIES! OUR BLOG IS RUNNING BEHIND OUR TRAVELS. We left Sheffield in mid July. We are trying to get up to date as soon as possible, but don't want you to miss out on any part of our travels! CLICK ON 'Where Zindagi Is Now' to find our latest location.

We arrived in Sheffield Basin, filled up with water, turned around, and moored just outside the main basin, but very close by. Really convenient to walk into the shops, but remarkably peaceful for such a central location.

On our journey northwards on the Trent, up the eastern side of the country, whenever we branched out we seem to have travelled largely south again, and Sheffield was no exception. In fact, we had been very close to it when we went up the Chesterfield Canal.

Apart from just going wherever we can take 'Zindagi', we had other reasons for visiting Sheffield – meeting friends – but in the meantime we could enjoy the canal basin architecture. The 'Straddle' Warehouse (1895) stands across the basin and behind it are the Grain and Terminal Warehouses (1819), plus a row of Wharf Cottages.

Noona, the daughter of our friends in Jalandhar, Punjab, was just coming to the end of her studies in the UK and wanted to see us before she flew out, so she very kindly made the trip up from Birmingham and we met her at the station and enjoyed a day together.

Our friends Geoff and Pauline (who live in Sheffield) were away for a few days, so we just stayed on our mooring – and the day after Noona's visit, the canal basin became the centre of a Family Fun Day, including these waterballs for the children!

It DID rain quite a bit while were in Sheffield – sudden, sharp downpours! However, we had a good day when we took the bus to the Botanical Gardens – here are a few snapshots!

The next day, Geoff and Pauline came to see us. Geoff & Dave shared a trip to India back in 1981, but we have hardly seen each other since then, though we have remained in touch. It was good to spend some time together, remember old friends and get a little more up to date with what the others are doing these days.

. . . and then it was time to start moving on! Dave the lock-keeper had told us that we could move down to Tinsley and moor there if we wanted to, so we made the short trip there in time to meet up with Dan and Dianne, who were on their way from Peterborough to Stoke-on-Trent – the long way round! They came on the Friday, and we headed down the Tinsley locks the next day, under Dave's watchful and friendly eye again – it was great meeting you, Dave!